Proof of Existence?
by ShinobiCyrus
Summary: Memories before now a graspless dream, have I really lived? My Heart's rightful place a hollow void, do I even exist? Another Side of The Key of Destiny's Story.


The rain fell heavily on the empty city, a mourning lament for The World That Never Was. He walked through the city's streets alone, black cloak blending with shadows cast by the canyon of buildings looming high above him. Raindrops softly pattered his hooded head, face hidden in the shade of his cowl.

Reaching the edge of the avenue, he at last stopped in a deserted plaza. A massive skyscraper jutted skyward just ahead, a haughty challenge to the dark heavens above. Neon lighting glowed dismally as he spotted a single figure at the tip of the spire: A boy identically cloaked; hood thrown back for long white hair twining past the shoulders. Riku's handsome face smiled darkly down at him, eyes wrapped beneath a black blindfold.

The hooded boy lowered his head, uncaring of the rain. The words had haunted him since his rebirth in darkness; a silent, indefinable torment that infected the wound of his absent Heart:

"_Where's Sora?"_

To Riku, to himself, or maybe to the black sky above? To whom he had spoken, he did not know. The words themselves were forgotten the moment they left his lips.

But the torment remained.

The ever-present darkness of The World That Never Was stirred, the Heartless rose from the streets like shadows come-alive; their greedy yellow eyes like floating orbs on their silhouette bodies. Dozens mobbed around him- clogging the street, their hunger roiling from the darkness.

A flourish of cloaked arms summoned two whirling exotic swords into his hands. The black Keyblade Oblivion gripped tightly in his right fist; its white sister Oathkeeper sitting serenely in his left. The encircling Heartless surged forward as one, the object of their greatest yearning just at the edge of their groping claws. Without a hint of unease he lunged, feet dancing swiftly on the slick street as he guided his swords with expert precision.

Striking the solid form of a Heartless failed to slow the dizzying weaves and parries the Keyblades made, the wielding arms moving of their own volition. Each swing of his swords hewed through handfuls like air as they dispersed the dark chaos-stuff that gave the Heartless their shape. Pausing but an instant, he spied Riku still atop the skyscraper, regarding the melee with stoic bemusement.

Cleaving a path through the Heartless easily, he leapt impossibly high over the mob onto the tower's side, cloak flapping behind him like wings as he sprinted up the sheer straight wall. Arching his arm back, he sent Oblivion hurling towards Riku- who effortlessly dove off his perch and snatched the black Keyblade from its murderous course.

The two shared an instant glace with one another; Riku rocketing downwards, the hooded boy padding deftly up Memory's Skyscraper.

Reuniting friends meeting for the first time,

Equals acknowledging each other on the battlefield,

And Brothers in Darkness cursed together in doom.

-deep dive-

**Utter Silence**

The drop of darkness bled into the air, tunneling a door through reality and space. The hooded boy stepped through the portal moments before it collapsed behind him, cool blue eyes glinting in the shadow of his hood.

A man garbed in an identical cloak sat patiently on a nearby rock, admiring the perfect starless night sky resting atop a tranquil black ocean.

"You have arrived," The Enigmatic Man noted simply.

Offered no response by the newcomer, the man went on. "I've been to see him. He looks just like you."

"_Who are you?"_ he asked at last.

"I am all that remains. Or, maybe I'm all there ever was…"

"_I meant your name."_

"My name is unimportant," The Enigmatic Man said dismissively. "What about you? Do you remember your _true _name?"

The Boy was hesitant, unsure, struggling to piece the memories so much like a scattered dream. _"My name…my true name is…"_

**A fragmented tale**

**A world without you**

The moment the last Heartless burst into nothing, they turned on each other. The sibling Keyblades sang their shrieking song of steel meeting steel as the cloaked swordsmen drew a sphere of sparks around themselves. They soared gracefully in the air, black and white blades colliding; the strength behind their blows a lifting wind that keeps falling leaves afloat.

Darting quickly to the ground, the hooded boy twisted Oathkeeper's pommel outwards, reinforcing the Keyblade's length with his forearm. Wasting no time, Riku bore down on him quickly, Oblivion smashing against his guard. His counterattack was instantaneous, a single strike that left Riku stunned and toppling onto the ground.

Granting his fallen opponent no time to recover, Oathkeeper was held threateningly to Riku's throat.

**The eyes will close**

"Roxas," Naminé said softly. "You were never supposed to exist…"

"Even if it's true, how can you say something like that?"

"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I guess some things….really _are _better left unsaid."

**Something so natural**

"**I hate you!" **Roxas roared at the Man in Red.

"You should share some of that hatred with Sora," DiZ suggested. "He's _far _too nice for his own good."

**The memory beyond**

Riku stared up at the hooded boy with blind eyes, head shaking in furious disbelief. "Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?"

"_Shut up," _Roxas snapped.

Oathkeeper shot forward.

**Something so simple**

The beautiful stain-glass floor of The Station of Awakening cast a radiant blue light beneath their shifting feet; the Keyblade Master struggling against a boy cloaked in black.

Sora clenched his teeth in exertion, the hooded boy's Oblivion and Oathkeeper grinding persistently against his own Keyblade. "Who _are _you!" Sora demanded.

The hooded boy shuffled backwards, lifting the burning strain off of Sora's sore muscles as he held the Twin Keyblades ready at his sides. _"Someone from the dark," _he replied coldly.

**The Thirteenth Order**

"**They are the non-existent ones"**

The rain at last stopped, Roxas strode down Fragment Crossing- another dark and quiet street in The World That Never Was. Dirty blonde hair free of its hood, Roxas' sapphire eyes stared dimly before him. The Alley in Between laid just a few steps ahead- where he might at last find his answers.

"So, your mind's made up, huh?"

A thin man with narrow, violet eyes and a shock of spiked scarlet hair leaned casually on the wall behind Roxas, dressed in the same black cloak as he.

Roxas didn't bother turning to face Axel, presenting his back as he spoke with grim resolve. "The Keyblade chose _me_. I have to know why."

"If you turn on the Organization, they'll bury you!" Axel warned sharply.

The boy gave his old cohort a sad, final glace over his shoulder. "No one would miss me," he pointed out sorrowfully. Without another word, Roxas' feet stepped forward, carrying him along the path from whence there would be no return.

"That's not true," Axel whispered, his voice unable to reach his departing friend's ears.

"_I would…"_

"**The Third enemy is nobody…"**

Naminé's room was a pure white so unblemished its brightness stung Roxas' eyes. Countless pictures the girl had were scattered everywhere in her room- childish crayon rubbings, detailed pencil sketches, even watercolor paintings all randomly arranged on the white walls and floors like pieces of a life being carefully put back together.

It was like seeing fragments of himself he had long forgotten.

Roxas turned away from the last drawing- a smeared painting of a wandering boy in a black hood- back to his host waiting patiently in a white chair: Naminé. She was such a delicate thing, a pale girl no older than fourteen, the thin straps of a white sundress hanging off her slight frame.

The boy in the black hood….that garment was exclusively worn by… "Organization Thirteen," Roxas said. "Who are they? Whose side are they even on?"

"Bad, or good, I don't know," the witch shook her head. "They're a group of incomplete people who wish to be whole. To that end, they're desperately searching for something."

"Searching for what?"

Her pale blue eyes caught his. "Kingdom Hearts."

**XIII**

The Key of Destiny

Awakening

The End of the World

KINGDOM HEARTS


End file.
